Colorful World

To survive besides we need water to drink, absolutely we do need a food, do we not? But i always think over a sentence that reads, "food is not just a food". Yes, food to eat. Do you think it could be more than an edible things? When I think, I remembered my history lesson in junior high school that so many aspects in historical study of a culture e.g. Music, art, language, politic, economic, custom, philosophy, ritual even food. Believe it, don't you? Food is more than a food. Understanding and try identifying through it is a pleasure, because besides we taste it and kick out our hunger, it's a document! Have you ever wondered it? I am Indonesian people, living obviously among the many ethnics, beliefs and cultural diversities. Indonesia consist of several large island and hundreds of (event thousands, I think) small island. Just in one island, Java. In Jakarta you can find many food; kerak telor, ketoprak, ketupat sayur etc. In Bandung there are batagor, and cimol. In Jogjakarta we could found gudek, nasi kucing, nasi liwet, In Cirebon there are tahu gejrot, in Sumedang tahu sumedang, in Surabaya? There are rujak cingur, gado-gado. But, from what facet we could understand the culture via foods? First, the ingredients of a recipe. There's many likeness in each region of Java. Nasi uduk from Jakarta, nasi gudek from Yogyakarta and other rice-based food from Java Island tell us that Java has large area for rice field, rice are staple food, there is idiom of Javanese and other region of Indonesian peoples (that its staple food are rice), “If you have not eat rice, even though you eat every kind of foods it is mean you have not eat,” How important the rice is? In the past time, many Javanese people working as rice farmer and directly it's tell to us that people of Java Island culture cannot be separated from rice. It’s also tell that java soil is fertile, that was I mean why Javanese culture is farming.